1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to vehicles and, in particular, to heavy vehicle traffic flow optimization.
2. Description of the Related Art
Repairing roads costs hundreds of millions of dollars every year. The vast majority of the damage done to roads is due to a relatively small number of heavy vehicles. The two factors which affect the impact of a vehicle are the weight on each axle and the amount of time the vehicle spends on any given segment of road.
Present efforts to reduce this impact focus on the road surface, maintenance schedules and the per axle load of vehicles. Roads can be strengthened. Maintenance can be scheduled more frequently to prevent amplified failure rates. Further, vehicles can be modified in a number of ways to reduce the impact on the road. All of these approaches can have a positive effect. However, they miss a large opportunity to do even more.